Agenda highlights for the Thursday, July 26 City Council meeting.
Items 2-4: Austin Energy rebates to AMD, Samsung and Applied Materials. Why not?
Item 16: Adopting the Austin Music Memorial Guidelines. About as “rock & roll” as it sounds.
Items 18, 21: Nearly $200K in legal fees for LCRA/TCEQ water negotiations (bringing the total to $1.7 million! Who the hell else are they gonna sell that water to?), and $100K more for Water Treatment Plant No. 4 legal fees.
Item 22: A grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation to preserve a 1936 Chamber of Commerce Film named – honest to God – “When Grandad Fought the Indians.” All punch lines rendered obsolete.
Item 25: $248K to bring Zach Scott Theater into ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act) compliance.
Items 42-71: Mammoth Purchasing Office spend-a-thon.
Item 78: Renaming Town Lake for Lady Bird Johnson.
Items 80, 81: Waiving the prohibition against lobbyists (cough – Gus Garcia – cough) sitting on the Charter Revision Committee, and extending its deadline to bring back recommendations.
Item 84: Appointing five council members (everyone except Sheryl Cole and Jennifer Kim) to a Local Fare Approval Committee to examine Capital Metro fees and fares. How about doing something on how the 1L smells?
Items 86-90: Setting public hearings on items ranging from water utility fees to “a proposed Otis Spunkmeyer production expansion facility.” Who wouldn’t wanna live next to a cookie factory?
12pm Citizen Communications: All that bullshit we’ve been hearing about “endless democracy” is sure gonna be hard to fit in two minutes, thank you very much.
Item 91: Discuss legal issues relating to the search for new city manager in Executive Session. Also, look into reserving the Crossings for post-Toby deprogramming sessions.
Item 98: 1pm presentation of the city of Austin Proposed Budget for Fiscal Year 2007-2008.
Item 99: Second and third reading on Capital Metro’s planned South I-35 transit facility kicks off the 31-item zoning procession.
Item 100: Second and third on Barton Place, the condos going on Shady Grove RV park.
Items 122-123: The 12th & Hargrave development, amending the Rosewood Neighborhood Plan with zoning changes along Hargrave, between I-35 and Airport Boulevard.
Items 125-126: The two-part Riverfield rezone, allowing for denser development on Dean Keeton just east of the interstate.
Item 133: Public hearing and possible actions on extending the time neighborhoods have to file amendments to their VMU opt-in/opt-out applications, i.e., the dog ate my Vertical Mixed Use development.
This article appears in July 20 • 2007.